How where medieval universities developed?

Answer 1

The first schools called universities were founded in the Byzantine Empire during the 5th century. The University of Constantinople, founded in 425, is an example. These differed from the later universities in Western Europe in one very important respect, which was that they did not grant degrees based on standard curricula. Nevertheless, the curricula of later western universities were influenced by those of the Byzantine Empire.

The schools in Western Europe also did not grant degrees, and but were places where students gathered to attend classes with prominent academics.

The idea of a degree system was based to some measure on the structure of the guild, in which apprentices became journeymen, who then advanced to become masters. The students first took bachelor's degrees, analogous to the journeyman status, followed by becoming masters. At the time, a doctor was simply a teacher, and was not necessarily as advanced as a master.

The big advantage that western universities had was that a bachelor's degree was pretty much the same everywhere, and was for that reason transferable from one university to another. The master's degrees were similarly unified. Furthermore, the teaching was in Latin everywhere, so a student could go from any university to any other, without having to face linguistic or cultural differences.

Some universities were founded and supported by the Church, and the University of Paris was one of these. Others, such as Cambridge and Oxford, were founded and supported by the state. The university usually called the first, Bologna, was founded and run by its students, who exercised a good deal of control.

We should keep in mind that there were advanced schools dating back to the Early Middle Ages that were not universities. The Medical School at Salerno was one of these, and was considered the greatest school of its type by many people. Its foundation goes back to a time so obscure that we do not even have a century when we can confidently say it was founded.

Also, there were a number of schools like universities in the Muslim world, as well. Some of these were very highly thought of even at the time, and are quite impressive in retrospect.